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RIGHT COURSE 2017 PUBLISHED BY BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER
First Nations focus
Squamish Nation member Sheryl Rivers: “I chose SFU over Harvard because it was specific to aboriginal business and leadership and was the first in North America to offer it” | BEEDIE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Business Entrepreneurship Network, Aboriginal Entrepreneurship (ideaconnector.net) and the Canadian Centre for Aboriginal Entrepreneurship. ABORIGINAL-SPECIFIC MBA Q For those ready to take
the path to higher education, Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Beedie School of Business offers an executive MBA in aboriginal business and leadership. The program, open to aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, includes core MBA concepts while recognizing that traditional knowledge plays a significant role in aboriginal leadership and decision-making. Launched in 2012, the program’s first cohort graduated with MBA degrees in June 2015 and included the Squamish Nation’s Chief Ian Campbell. Sheryl Rivers, one of the first graduates of the program
and owner of Rivers Consulting Solutions, says she found the program useful for her business practice. “The depth and scope of projects, developments and relationships that I am working on is all happening more meaningfully because of the courses and content we covered during the three years I was there,” says Rivers, a member of the Squamish Nation. “I found the aboriginal content and context that we brought forward on how we do business with our culture, values and respect was also educational for the professors.” Rivers had just been accepted to Harvard when she found out about the Beedie program, she says. “I chose SFU over Harvard because it was specific to aboriginal business and leadership and was the first in North America to offer it. I am very happy with my final decision.” The program’s director, Mark Selman, says aboriginal students were not enrolling in SFU’s MBA program prior to the executive MBA in aboriginal business and leadership. “It didn’t look welcoming to aboriginal students,” Selman says. “We wanted to make sure aboriginal students had a place to go and feel comfortable studying business.” The program includes a strong aboriginal cultural focus designed to help students meet their social goals as well as learn how to manage complex business issues. “Most MBA programs are focused on [graduates] making as much money as possible, but that’s not the focus of our program. Almost everyone in the program wants to do it for social purposes as well.” É
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Your needs, first and foremost
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t UNBC Continuing Studies, your needs come first. By offering easily-accessible online learning and face-to-face instruction, Continuing Studies is committed to ensuring that your professional training requirements are targeted. As a division of Northern BC’s nationally ranked university, they work closely with communities, organizations, and industry partners to provide relevant, responsive, and flexible curriculum to students and employers. They have provided online training to businesses across Canada, and face-to-face programs to areas such as the Yukon, the Lower Mainland and Kootenays. “We understand that offering exemplary programming to learners and stakeholders is just as important as providing adaptive instruction and lesson planning consistent with students’ geographic location and training specifications,” says Lisa Haslett, Manager, Continuing Studies. With programming in various fields such as natural resource management,
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professional development, health and safety, environmental monitoring, and project management, companies focused on maintaining skilled personnel count on Continuing Studies to accommodate training plans reflective of industry change and suited to the needs of its partners. Continuing Studies has collaborated with TransCanada on that company’s Pathway to Pipeline Readiness program, through which the Occupational Health and Safety Officer training course was established. More than 20 students graduated from the course that was formatted according to recommendations of various industry leaders, allowing students subsidized access to specialized training for use as a skilled worker in natural gas and other resource-based industries in British Columbia. Their e-learning department has now modelled its new Occupational Health & Safety – Online Certificate on that same curriculum. This addition to their unique online programming benefits learners
through the use of media-enriched content such as user interactions and videoon-demand. Expansion to their online division means greater potential to coordinate training for students and businesses on an international scale. Furthermore, Continuing Studies can integrate its online platform with face-to-face courses to create a custom learning experience. Therefore, learners are able to obtain their desired credentials on their own time in a way suitable to them, while ensuring companies’ training objectives are met and obstacles to business operations are overcome. “Our goal is to work personally with every business to determine their unique training needs,” says Haslett. “We will tailor courses to allow any organization to incorporate its own product training, operating policies, procedures, and work practices into course material that meet their expectations.” For more information, visit unbc.ca/ continuing-studies, or online.unbc.ca.
2016-12-15 10:43 AM